Mesothelioma is a post-modern rite of passage! Shut up and use your Montgomery GI Bill! Enlistees of combat arms are jocularly informed of SABOT's persona during the last few weeks of AIT: for Infantry training waves destined for the Bradley Fighting vehicle, the Abrahms/other ballistic kill toys drill sergeant recounts coming upon the Iraqi tank with its engine still running, track and turret intact, with no apparent damage but the depleted uranium round entrance hole and the wedge-shaped field of gore laying on the desert floor on the SABOT exit side: what the depleted uranium round does is penetrate a target vehicle so cleanly and with such force and velocity that it creates a vacuum sucking the physical remains of all soft targets within the vehicle out the SABOT round exit hole. The problem on the trigger end is that every time a round is fired from the BFV 25mm cannon (for instance) the puff of bullet exhaust that ye olde gunslinger stylishly 'pfffs' away from the barrel is 'pfffed' right into the turret, driver's compartment and dismount soldier area of the SABOT carrying fighting vehicle. In typical battle theater many hundreds of SABOT rounds may be expended weekly or even daily, even just for target practice. Not to mention the millions of rounds themselves scattered a few inches beneath the desert floor. Nobody alive on earth right now is going to outlive the half-life of those sunken bullets. Not to mention the people killed by the original intent of the bio-violence. Alles is nicht fair in Liebe und Krieg. But I'll take that old heart-wrench over this drowning rattle anytime.

it does not seem "fair" to me that people believe all manor of weird things about wars except that war is a terrible trick played on the lower classes by their capitalist masters.

how can anyone not see that war is nothing more than institutionalized mass murder?

maybe i just feel this way because i am an american and am sickened with what has become of my country under the leadership of the cabal of war criminals who seized control of our government via the 9/11 coup.

Nowadays I'm really into satirizing the lyrics of popular songs and jingles, and one of simplest and most satisfying handles I've discovered is to substitute the word "lunch" for "love" anywhere it is found. Doing a google search after the previous sentence to find the name of a certain band whose song I know but name I don't I discovered that this is a fairly popular past time...Love is just such a decentralized participle... I was lunching at a recent eugenics picnic. Wars raged on either side of the eternal sea. Love sat a short distance from our productive munching...stupefied by an enriched gnostic decoction of rotted rye bread and cured sativas...Seems that while the old 'sterilize the ugly' and 'inseminate the pulchritudinous" worked halfway for a hot fascistic moment, the matter of shepherding the human race into a near-future utopia was being trampled by the exponential voracity and prolificacy of the third world's yonis...The extended family of bipeds who still rely on their quadrupeds for hunger and thirst abatement randomly establish marginally designed galaxies at a rate that has long outstripped the ability of the inner ring of value-changers to support that far-flung pastoral indolence while still maintaining their dearly won precipitous invidiousness that exists to clearly define the division of accomplishment within society...and inspire individuals to greatness. Unfortunately, nothing is fair in love or war. Dues earned are to be paid to the member. The planet is one place, upon the finite feeds and infinite inhabitation. Hunger and thirst and the most basic discomforts of the human condition. These are not to be knowingly experienced beyond the curtain of mortal death. Every human will die sooner or later. If not sooner from a mystery, than later from extended suffering or unexpected event. The comfort of nothingness is not to be known beyond the curtain of mortal birth. Every being will be born sooner or later. If not sooner from an orgasmic conception, then later from an evolution or test tube...

Is any war fought by mercenaries fair? American military, like any other, is made of three types of soldiers; the bully type who is no good for anything in normal society, the weak type who will follow others, and the poor type who will do almost anything for money. We have all seen to what lengths the military will go to fool the young and naive into their deadly trap. No intelligent person would sign up to kill for money. That is why they can not find enough soldiers, even with the mighty backing by the capitalists of the military and oil industry.

No, all is not fair in a war fought for money (or as they keep saying "our way of life"). Down with the helmet-heads!

I was thinking about that phrase just the other day, and I concluded that it's just a stupid thing to say. It makes a little more sense on the "war" side, because once you've decided to kill a bunch of people you've already committed yourself to a certain level of unfairness. But the "love" portion of that saying has me stumped. Love just doesn't seem like it ought to need that kind of special consideration. If you're acting out of love you ought to be considering what's actually fair, at the very least, rather than looking for a catch-all rationalization.

Oh, and while war is always going to involve trying to kill your enemies, when the leaders of a fighting force decieve their soldiers in order to achieve a goal....well, that's just crappy. They should be ashamed of themselves.

"Fair" is a misnomer for the question. Love has rarely ever been fair & equitable between couples, toward children, friends or any other relationship. War has never been fair under any circumstances. War exists only for men (and I mean that by gender) to fulfill ego, take what is not theirs, advance for profit, & to subjugate & control. This all by conscription of the people to die & suffer in untold numbers for the reasons listed above. The ones who start wars are "leaders", "politicians", "religeous clerics" & supporters for personal gain. "Fair" does not enter the equation.

There is nothing that is "all fair". That is like saying the Ten Commandments & the Bill of Rights should be followed exactly as written & not followed by an invisible "but however", which they are. Fairness is totally relative & decided for every individual situation, or there cannot be fairness at all.